


The First Night Home

by lunaseemoony



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Arguing, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Pete's World, Post-Episode: s04e13 Journey's End, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-20
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-10 06:28:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4380761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunaseemoony/pseuds/lunaseemoony
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A disagreement about the TARDIS coral exposes a fragile root in Rose’s new relationship with the Doctor after the long zeppelin ride home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The First Night Home

**Author's Note:**

> This ficlet is for timelordinvictus's prompt

 

He closed the tiny piece of coral in his palm, letting its grainy shell scratch his new skin. It was still warm, and he imagined that faint glow. But when he opened his palm, only a lifeless hunk of coral stared back up at him. Still, it was  _his_ , given to him by his other, the only connection he had left that he could cling to. He knew Rose liked to imagine there was some invisible wall surrounding them at all times, and Other was just outside it looking in. All they had to do, she said, was grow their own TARDIS and hop to the other side of that wall. Easy.

“Rose, it doesn’t work that way. It’ll take…” he paused to growl a hoarse sigh and shove his fingers into his hair. “I honestly don’t know how long it’ll take. But it’ll be most of our lifetime, if not more than that.”

Rose simply folded her arms and plopped down in the dining room chair with her tea. She was doing her damnedest to look unaffected, calm and collected. He watched her tea ripple in its cup and her fingers curl in their struggle to not drum on the table as they wanted to. He wanted to think of her as his little human with all of her crippling human emotions. The presence of the coral in his hand and the shortness of his breath was a reminder that he shouldn’t. They were almost the same, or in the very least possessed the same sort of mortality.

“So?” she challenged, making a vice grip on her mug. “Isn’t it worth the wait? Who cares if we’re old and wrinkly? We can still go anywhere!”

“He gave us this chance so we could - so  _I_  could - have that life, settle down like I never could,” he thrust his hands into his pockets and clawed his thighs through his trousers.

“I never said that’s what I wanted. If I wanted to settle down I never would have gone chasing after you -  _him_  - in the first place. He… what could I do, when he wanted us to stay? I just… I got distracted in the moment. We could have gone after him, ran into the TARDIS!  _I_ could have gone after him! I should have.” She stopped to take a sip of her tea, and though she looked at him while she slurped at it she also shot daggers at him. Her fiery eyes may as well have been telling him he chased Other away. “D'you know how awful it was, stuck here in one place, thinking he was out there on the other side traveling, as we ought to together? That’s not the life I want!”

“I see. Well…”

He inhaled a sharp breath to properly collect what he’d just heard, pursed his lips and spun on his heels to leave the room. That was Rose’s golden opportunity to take back what she’d just said, but she didn’t use it. Instead of just leaving the room, his feet carried him right out of their -  _her­_ \- flat. These new lungs were great for giving him a physical ache and burn to coincide with the words that were replaying in his mind. They carried him all the way down the street and to a mostly deserted park. A couple of teenagers were scandalizing a bench, and he quietly longed for their peaceful zeppelin ride home. He thought to himself how it felt like a veil of innocence surrounded their cozy seat. It had been so impenetrable, until they left at least. They’d hardly spoken a word to one another. As long as she could pretend that he was  _her_  Doctor she was content to cuddle up to him and watch the blanket of clouds beneath their feet fly by.

He didn’t give breath to the thought, and she didn’t need to speak it either. Her words were laced with it and her contempt with being stuck with him. He was the consolation prize. At least they’d been given a piece of the TARDIS. Other had even suggested doing something with it. But they both know nothing could come of it. Rose knew it too. She could feel it just as he felt the coral’s life evaporating with each minute distancing them from Other and the TARDIS. He couldn’t fault Rose for wanting to cling to their old way of life. He wanted to as well.

He propped himself up against a tree and sighed. He couldn’t smell the leaves as clearly any more, or hear the branches swaying in the wind. He couldn’t feel the Earth spinning beneath his feet. But he could feel Rose slinking into his peripheral to lean up next to him around the other side of the tree. He could hear her sigh and see her close her eyes. She thought about holding his hand, her fingers ghosting over his veins before retreating.

“We could still get back to him,” she suggested in a meek murmur. He looked down and saw her ripping the remaining life from a plucked wildflower.

“We can’t. You know that. Even then, what would you tell him?” Her pause and fidgeting feet spoke more volumes than any words.

“It just doesn’t feel right, being left here like that. Binned.”

He caught her hand when it made another sweep over his, whether it would be given or not. He took it. “We weren’t binned. He knew… we both knew what this chance meant to us - me. I don’t want to waste it spending our lives trying to get back to  _him_. He wouldn’t want that either.” And while she was distracted for just a split second he pulled her into his arms and mimicked the vice-like grip she’d had on her tea cup only moments ago.

“He also said you - ”

He hushed her and snaked a hand beneath her shirt to set his now warm palm to her back. She didn’t fight a soft purr into his jacket. “Doesn’t matter what said, he’s gone now. There’s no way to get back to him, and if that’s the only reason you want to grow that coral, you’ll be disappointed.”

She bit her lip and met his gaze finally. “It’s not. You know I can’t sit still. I need that rush, to wander, to get lost.”

He looked up at the night sky. It wasn’t clear by any stretch of the imagination. But past the thick clouds and haze were a new set of constellations waiting to be documented. There were so many possibilities awaiting them beneath the vast blanket of stars. They just had to reach out and take them.

“We don’t need the TARDIS for that Rose,” he pouted his lower lip in contemplation. “We could create our own adventure, start over.”

“I rather like the sound of that, Doctor,” Rose cooed.

He straightened up and cleared his throat. “Say that again?”

“Doctor,” she giggled among a trickle of two tears.

“So I’m the Doctor again?” he preened.

Rose stood up on her tiptoes, biting her lower lip as she reached up to him, but backed down. Had her guilt sapped all her bravery away? No matter, he thought. He grabbed her chin and pulled it back within reach of his lips so he could steal hers. Though he yearned for the days when he knew her tart, sweet lips were his already for the taking, if starting over meant taking her breath away anew, he was alright with a bit of theft. And considering her fingers tugging at his hair and her chest pressing into his, she might not have minded either. Was this how it was going to be, roller coasters of passion? If he’d thought settling down with Rose meant they’d lead a quiet life, he found himself sorely mistaken.

“I think you’ll do, yeah,” Rose grinned against his cheek and answered after a gulp of a breath. “But if you think just because I’m letting this go that we’re going to go out and get a mortgage tomorrow you’re so wrong, mister. I’ve got the funds, I want to travel.”

“Just as he intended, I think.”


End file.
